Patrick Mahomes behind Aaron Donald on CBS Top 100 NFL players list
By Matt Conner
The Kansas City Chiefs landed six players on CBS Sports Top 100 Player in the NFL—a list that seems fairly reasonable.
Patrick Mahomes is fresh off of a season in which he was the NFL’s Most Valuable Player. He won the honor with historic numbers of 50 touchdowns and 5,000 passing yards. He had his team, the Kansas City Chiefs, on the verge of their first Super Bowl appearance since 1970 despite one of the league’s worst-ranked defense.
He’s also the NFL’s second best player, if you ask CBS Sports.
CBS recently revealed their rankings for the Top 100 players in the NFL and Aaron Donald, the dominant defensive lineman for the Los Angeles Rams, came up first in the overall rankings instead of Patrick Mahomes.
"It’s not every year that a quarterback who throws for 5,097 yards and 50 touchdowns doesn’t even get to check in at No. 1. That’s the reality of this league right now, but Mahomes did finish just two points behind the No. 1 guy in our voting (996 to 994) and was the unanimous No. 1 quarterback in the league among our panel."
From my perspective, it’s easy to make the argument either way for Mahomes. Given the incredible season warranted an MVP trophy, he deserves to be No. 1 and Jared Dubin, the CBS Sports writer tasked with creating blurbs for each player, admits as much. That said, he’s a one-year wonder at this point whereas Donald has been recognized as the top defensive player in the game for multiple seasons. Mahomes is the future of the league, without a doubt, and he’ll likely sit atop this list for years to come. For now, however, it belongs to Donald. That much makes sense, too.
As for other Chiefs, the team was well-represented with six overall players including three of the top 25. Mahomes sits at No. 2 and then Travis Kelce comes in next as the NFL’s top tight end at No. 19 overall. Interior lineman Chris Jones is at No. 25, and the story is just another feather in his cap as he seeks major extension money from the Chiefs front office.
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Tyreek Hill‘s drama this offseason likely cost him several spots as he’s now at No. 52 overall. Hill has the sort of electric agility and top-tier speed to be included among the top 30 or 40 players overall. From there, Mitchell Schwartz checks in at No. 69 as the best right tackle in the game, and Frank Clark rounds out the Chiefs entrants at No. 89.
As for the biggest issues, you could mention Hill being so low and maybe Frank Clark hanging out too close to the bottom. Tyrann Mathieu should be considered for a list like this. Sammy Watkins, when healthy, is also a consideration. Kendall Fuller is another name with potential. That said, CBS largely got this right.